Comments on: Bad place for mentally illhttp://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/bad-place-for-mentally-ill/23692/
A blog of opinions on local, state and national issuesSun, 02 Aug 2015 13:09:06 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2By: Jeffreyhttp://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/bad-place-for-mentally-ill/23692/comment-page-1/#comment-37962
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:21:14 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/?p=23692#comment-37962Janet…that is an excellent question. Diogenes, de-institutionalization is not the problem. Closing the institutions and then cutting funding for any community based programming is the real issue.
]]>By: bassjig34http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/bad-place-for-mentally-ill/23692/comment-page-1/#comment-37947
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:00:20 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/?p=23692#comment-37947I agree we should put more mentally ill people on the streets – We see how that worked out for Sandy Hook. Oh wait that is not the real issue it’s guns.. sarcasm intended
]]>By: Diogenes IIhttp://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/bad-place-for-mentally-ill/23692/comment-page-1/#comment-37832
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 01:46:00 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/?p=23692#comment-37832This has been a problem ever since we started deinstitutionalizing the mentally ill in the 1960’s, with all but the worst cases deinstitutionalized by the 1990’s. This plan is unlikely to work unless these people are reinstitutionalized after they get arrested if it’s found that they are unable to show up for treatment and court related appointments. This is likely to be a fairly high percentage of the population in question. This is particularly true for younger offenders, particularly ones who are 16-17 who legally are too young to make some decisions on their own but who don’t have parents who are capable of making the decisions for them. A lot of these kids are functionally homeless and would actually benefit by being required to live in a facility of some sort just so long as it isn’t a jail. Hopefully the legislation Chief Justice Lipmann is working on for 16 and 17 year olds will be part of this plan.
]]>By: Ninahttp://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/bad-place-for-mentally-ill/23692/comment-page-1/#comment-37828
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 23:32:35 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/?p=23692#comment-37828We have not come even close to dealing with the mentally ill who have been incarcerated. This results in a revolving door system with no end in sight. Do we have enough money and ideas to treat the mentally
ill?
]]>By: clifjay37http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/bad-place-for-mentally-ill/23692/comment-page-1/#comment-37827
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 23:02:13 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/?p=23692#comment-37827When you consider how our system works for those who run afoul of the law and do not have money or connections they are assigned a public defender who usually does a poor job of representing the person. The public defender typically has too large a work load and merely wants to move cases through the system regardless of the defendants mental condition. Our country is not interested in taking proper care of the mentally ill. Also consider that the system needs prisoners to justify their existence and annual budgets and also consider that many of our prisons are being privatized. That means transferring the responsibility for prisoners to some corporation who can do it cheaper, not better but cheaper. This does not lead to a prison population that is properly cared for while incarcerated. It is just a cheaper way to house those we don’t want in our society and who seemingly cannot play by the rules our society imposes.However we owe them proper medical care while in custody and that includes mental health
]]>By: Janet Innes-Kirkwoodhttp://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/bad-place-for-mentally-ill/23692/comment-page-1/#comment-37804
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:48:13 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/?p=23692#comment-37804When you ask the important question of, how did we get to the point where we have more than four times the rate of incarceration as do most other countries? When you look at the jaw dropping racial and economic disparity it pulls down shame upon the heads of those that oversee this current system. Then there are the mentally ill that as treatment we commit what in many countries is seen as cruel and unusual punishment by locking them for hours in cells, and we jail the ill, the addicted, and the young in our dreadful prisons, often if we are truthful for the profit they provide some. We give people outrageous sentences for non-violent crimes. The system can get all the boosters and lobbyists they want but it will not cover up what will be seen by our grandchildren and others including our adversaries as an abomination. It will be ranked up there with the legacy of the likes of Stalin because in fact it is as evil. People will rightly ask, Why did the leaders of the “free” world do nothing to stop this travesty against their own people? Who were these leaders? What is the point of all this endless punishment? What is the lesson you all want us to learn? To hate you? When I compare the unpunished crimes of the privileged to some of these other’s the hypocrisy is stunning. Why steal your citizens’ lives away just gobbling up endless time between your paychecks at such great cost? We are losing our soul as a nation. Is there any one left to save it?
]]>By: homeschoolerhttp://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/bad-place-for-mentally-ill/23692/comment-page-1/#comment-37793
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:23:53 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/?p=23692#comment-37793I’m not in favor of incarcerating people for anything but criminal actions. At court a determination should be made of the individual’s mental health status at the time of the crime. Glad its not up to me, to me a person on drugs is exhibiting a mental health problem. Could be they are compensating for it. Murder, robbery, rape, theft, assault, all mental health problems. These people act out regardless of the risk, and hurt to others. So if we deem that only some should pay a penalty for criminal actions, what do we do with the rest? Leave them on the street? Sure, then they can commit more criminal actions with impunity. Increase probation or other mental health interventions? Again, this would not cause criminal behavior to decrease. Still on the street, still offending. Prison? If warranted, and they will have full access to Mental Health programs. Mental Health incarceration? Triple the cost of prison incarceration. Its all dollars, and you simply choose who will suffer when the offender re offends. Employees, or the general public.
]]>By: Jeffreyhttp://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/bad-place-for-mentally-ill/23692/comment-page-1/#comment-37778
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:44:07 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/?p=23692#comment-37778You would indeed think a Governor would take notice. Our prisons are filled with individuals with serious psychiatric illness and it is not only unfair to them but to the correctional staff who have to become mental health workers in addition to everything else they do on a day-to-day basis. For all the blather about mental health in the wake of Sandy Hook, perhaps it is time politicians put their money where their mouths are. Our state mental health system is so gutted that for many, prison is the only TREATMENT alternative.
]]>By: paul waserhttp://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/bad-place-for-mentally-ill/23692/comment-page-1/#comment-37774
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:13:17 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/?p=23692#comment-37774I am appalled by the system in which mentally ill persons make up almost one third of our prison population. We call ourselves civilized? What a a cruel and inhumane way to isolate someone who suffers from a condition beyond what they can control.
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